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Amrita school of business student wins TCS award
Coimbatore: Anitha Kaveri,
second-year MBA student at the Amrita School of
Business, Coimbatore recently won the top award
in a contest conducted by TCS and The
SmartManager magazine. The award, that included
a prize money of Rs. 25,000, was presented to
Anitha for a case analysis, she titled Sweet
Salvation. Anitha's analysis recommended
strategies that a regional packaged sweets and
snacks company could adopt to counter
competition and the onslaught of new brands.
Anitha's winning analysis was published in the
September-October issue of The SmartManager
magazine. This bi-monthly business magazine
conducts this case competition regularly,
publishing all winning entries in its successive
issues. "Pendharkar Bros. is a household name
across Maharashtra," explained Anitha, referring
to the case she analyzed. "This 50-year old
regional company now wants to grow and become
known among the who's who of the overall sweets
and snacks market in India and internationally."
However, competition is tough. The company has
to deal with clever competitors who have already
cornered a major chunk of the market. What
specific strategies can it adopt? Anitha's
insightful and precise analysis of market
forces, company operations and its branding
techniques resulted in several strategic
recommendations for the management team. "Let's
look at ways in which we can capitalize on
tradition and customer base that has built up in
50 years," she wrote. Elaborating further,
Anitha explained that it was time the company
undertook a reality check of whether customers
still associated top quality, hygiene and fair
pricing with the brand, just as they did, some
50 years ago.
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"In 50 years, consumer
preferences have undergone a drastic change,"
she stated. "Pendharkar must find out what
customers are looking for today, when they think
of snacks and sweets. With increasing health
consciousness among youth, healthy snacks have
an increased appeal." "It may be time to do some
product innovation and appeal to a segment which
your competitors have not thought of – the lite
snacks segment," she underlined. Anitha wisely
cautioned against depending solely on increasing
ad spend or getting into price wars with
competitors, although these might seem, at
first, to be lucrative options. She had more
words of caution. Questioning the wisdom of
exporting to countries such as Israel, Singapore
and USA, she suggested instead, that the company
explore markets in nearby countries that have
similar food habits. She summed up her analysis
with some uplifting words of advice. "It's time
to straighten your shoulders and be proud of
what you have built. Understanding your
strengths would help in understanding where you
want your organization to be, and that would be
the starting point of all the good things to
come in future."
